History Commons^™

"In The Footsteps Of Hercules": The Influence Of Classical Antiquity On Eighteenth-Century Militaries, Scott Madere

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project examines the pervasive influence of ancient Roman and Greek figures, historical events, literature, and military methods on the leaders and practitioners of eighteenth-century warfare. Rulers, generals, military theorists, and officers frequently consulted classical histories and literature for solutions to the common military problems of the period – tactical, operational, and strategic – showing remarkable faith in ancient military methods despite their growing dependence on gunpowder weaponry and related technologies. This dissertation examines why this was the case and concludes that classical antiquity not only maintained the credibility of its wisdom in the context of modern warfare, but also …

Louine Lunt Peck, Interviewed By Carol Toner And Mazie Hough, Part 2, Louine Lunt Connor Peck

MF144 Women in the Military

Louine Lunt Peck, interviewed by Carol Toner and Mazie Hough, August 16, 2000, at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Peck talks about serving as a Second Lieutenant as a nurse in the Navy Nurses Corps from 1938 to 1941; serving in the Army Nurses Corps from 1943 to 1945; serving on the USAHS Acadia, which sailed to the Bay of Naples and Normandy. Text: 53 pp. transcript. Time: 01:34:39.

Listen:

Part 1: mfc_na3221_c2325_01
Part 2: mfc_na3221_c2325_02

From Hellfighters To Tuskegee Airmen, Austin Teague

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The First and Second World Wars were enormous facilitators for drawing people from all over to enlist. Nowhere was this more the case than in the United States after it entered the war in 1916, and later in 1941. Although a vast majority of those who joined were white, a smaller percentage were African Americans. Due to the racial relations of the time, they were separated into their own black only regiments. The 369th Infantry Regiment would come to be known as the Harlem Hellfighters and were sanctioned to work in the French Army. The 99th Pursuit Squadron, also known …

Perkins, John Casey, 1918-2010 (Mss 753), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 753. Reports of the operations of the U.S. Army, Third Infantry Division in Italy, Sicily, France and Germany during World War II. Includes reports relating to the service of Lieutenant Colonel John C. Perkins of Bowling Green, Kentucky in the Third Signal Company. Also includes memoranda of surrender written by Nazi SS officer Otto Skorzeny, taken into custody by Perkins in Austria in May 1945 (Click on "Additional Files" below for scans).

Coke Family Papers (Mss 737), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 737. Correspondence and papers of the Coke family of Logan County, Kentucky and related families, principally the Guthrie and McCutchen families. Includes materials on the historic family homestead, McCutchen Meadows, near Auburn, Kentucky. Also includes J. Guthrie Coke's letters to his wife Carrie, January-February 1914, written in the form of journals describing his experiences as a state legislator in Frankfort, Kentucky (Click on "Additional Files" below).

Jackson, Harry Lucellus, 1907-1985 (Mss 171), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 171. Correspondence and papers of Harry L. Jackson, a Warren County, Kentucky native and Cleveland, Ohio executive. Includes his World War II correspondence, genealogical research, and papers of his wife Evelyn’s family, the Minshalls of Ohio. A sampling of Jackson's World War II letters to sisters Sallie and Bernice can be viewed under "Additional Files" below.

Interview With Clinton Hines, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

Clinton Hines was interviewed by Esther Mallard, November 11, 1987. Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog!

Interview With William Brannen, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

A part of the "Our Hometown Heroes" series. William Brannen interviewed by Linda Awe, November 13, 1999.

Interview With Carl Atwell, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

A part of the "Our Home Town Heroes" series. Carl Atwell interviewed by Linda Awe, November 13, 1999. Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog!

Moulder-Campbell Family Papers (Mss 734), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 734. Correspondence and papers of the Moulder, Campbell and related families of Warren County, Kentucky. Includes genealogical data.

Gentry, Martha Beck "Mattie" (Spangler), 1862-1940 (Mss 733), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 733. Journal, 1878-1880, of Mattie (Spangler) Gentry, Covington, Kentucky, chronicling her attendance at Lexington’s Hamilton Female College and at boarding school in Orléans, France; also her journal, 1889-1898, recording her life as a music teacher and her courtship and marriage. Includes photographs and a letter to Mattie in France from the president of Hamilton College (Click on "Additional Files" for typescript).

Hines, Duncan, 1880-1959 (Mss 731), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 731. Correspondence, biographical data, planning and publicity materials relating to Duncan Hines Week on 9-15 November 1986 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hines’s guidebook Adventures in Good Eating, and material relating to subsequent annual events under the names Duncan Hines Celebration and Duncan Hines Festival.

Downing, Joseph Dudley, 1925-2007 (Sc 3538), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3538. Letter, 28 October 1964 of Joseph Dudley “Joe” Downing, Paris, France, to WKU president Kelly Thompson and his wife Sarah. He writes about his painting “And Forever After,” recently sent to them as a gift, and thanks them for a recent exhibition of his work at WKU. He also describes the dinner party he gave that centered around their gift of a country ham, the full menu, and the reactions of his French friends. He also describes the improvements made to his apartment using an honorarium from WKU.

Milem, Charles Arthur, 1893-1950 (Sc 3493), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3493. Letters, 28 March and 27 April 1919, of Arthur Milem to his future wife Bendola White in Covington, Kentucky. Writing from Verdun, France, where he is serving with the American Expeditionary Force, he reports on the weather, letters received from family and friends, and his uneventful military life. Noting that his is now the oldest company left at Verdun, he expresses hope that orders will arrive soon allowing them to embark for “the good old U.S.A.” Hearing that Bendola and his sister are planning a reception …

“Nothing Material Occurred”: The Maritime Captures That Caused Then Outlasted The United States’ Quasi War With France, Emma Zeig

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the French maritime seizures during the eighteenth-century US Quasi War with France (also called the half war, or the United States’ undeclared war with France), encompassing events on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in France, the United States, and the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. The analysis focuses on the captured ships, telling the stories of seamen who feared for their lives and merchants who lost their ships. This point of view allows the thesis to explore an area of the Quasi War that are less documented in other histories: how civilian participants experienced violence and the indifference …

Perry Collection (Mss 676), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 676. Letters, papers, photographs and scrapbooks of the Perry family, principally Gideon Babcock Perry, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Hopkinsville, Kentucky and his children, Reverend Henry G. Perry, Chicago, Illinois, and Emily B. Perry, Hopkinsville.

Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 (Sc 3446), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3446. “First Warren County Soldier to Die on D-Day,” a paper by Ray Buckberry describing known details of the death of Lieutenant James Lee Durham, Bowling Green, Kentucky on 6 June 1944 during the invasion of Normandy, France. A member of the 82^nd Airborne Infantry Division, Durham participated in a nighttime parachute drop early on D-Day. Includes a photograph of Durham’s gravestone in Bowling Green’s Fairview Cemetery.

Blotner, Joseph Leo, 1923-2012 (Mss 200), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 200. Research material collected by Joseph Leo Blotner for his literary biography of Robert Penn Warren. Includes Warren’s correspondence (photocopies from various repositories), interview transcripts, notes, news clippings, critical essays, and other documentation about Warren. Also includes drafts, galley proofs, and permissions related to the biography.

Revolution Is American Until It Isn't: A Study Of American Reactions To The French Revolution 1789 And The Russian Revolutionary Period Of 1917, Jonathan Dunning

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

This study compares American reactions to both the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolutions of 1917, and it finds that there are striking similarities in American responses to both. Early Republic Americans supported the French Revolution when it began, as they believed the French were adopting democratic and liberal ideas. Likewise, World War I era Americans supported the February Revolution in Russia, as they thought the rise of the Provisional Government would create a bright democratic future for the Russian people. However, as the French Revolution turned increasing violent in the 1790s and the Bolsheviks brought about the …

Part 4: Battle With Uss Kearsarge, Jack L. Dickinson

Jack L Dickinson

“June 19: Lying off Cherbourg. Moderate breeze from the westward. At 10:20 am discovered the Alabama steaming out of the port of Cherbourg, accompanied by a French ironclad steamer and a fore-and-aft rigged steamer, showing the white English ensign. Beat to general quarters and cleared for action. Steamed ahead, standing offshore, being distant from land about 2 leagues; altered our course and approached the Alabama." Official Records of Union and Confederate Navies, I, 3, p.64.

Part 4: Battle With Uss Kearsarge, Jack L. Dickinson

C.S.S. Alabama: An Illustrated History

“June 19: Lying off Cherbourg. Moderate breeze from the westward. At 10:20 am discovered the Alabama steaming out of the port of Cherbourg, accompanied by a French ironclad steamer and a fore-and-aft rigged steamer, showing the white English ensign. Beat to general quarters and cleared for action. Steamed ahead, standing offshore, being distant from land about 2 leagues; altered our course and approached the Alabama."

Official Records of Union and Confederate Navies, I, 3, p.64.

Winchel, Beulah Rhea, 1912-2015 (Mss 609), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 609. Correspondence, photographs, travel materials, genealogy, and other personal papers of Beulah R. Winchel, a Breckinridge County, Kentucky, native and a teacher and librarian who served in Japan, Germany and France with the U.S. Army Special Services and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.

Davis, Russell Leon, 1933-2004 (Mss 604), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 604. Correspondence, photographs, literature, and travel keepsakes related to the 1954 five-month stay in Ireland of Leon Davis of Edmonson County, Kentucky, as a delegate of the International Farm Youth Exchange Program.

Jules Verne Constructs America: From Utopia To Dystopia, Dana L. Radu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In my dissertation, I examine visions of the United States in Jules Verne’s (1828-1905) Voyages extraordinaires (1863-1905). Of the sixty-four novels that make up that series, twenty-three, over one-third, feature American characters or take place on American soil. I demonstrate that in his early novels (1863-1886), he presents the United States in an optimistic and utopian light, while in his later novels (1887-1905), his depictions of the United States take on a pessimistic and dystopian aspect. In also showing that Verne had been influenced by utopian socialists Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and Étienne Cabet (1788-1856), I provide …

Yancey, Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech), 1908-2004 (Mss 579), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 579. Correspondence, photographs, interviews and papers of Louisville, Kentucky native Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech Yancey. Includes papers and correspondence of her parents, Eugene and Clara Mae Robertson, brother James Thomas Robertson, husband William J. Keech, son William Robertson Keech, and family data.

Helm, Margie May, 1894-1991 (Mss 552), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 552. Personal and professional correspondence and papers of Margie Helm, Auburn, Kentucky native and longtime Western Kentucky University head librarian. Includes ancestral and family correspondence and papers, photographs, and genealogical research on the Helm, Carson, Porter, Blakey and related families.

Mccallum, Elizabeth Elliott (Cherry), 1890-1985 (Sc 2970), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2970. Three postcards sent by Elizabeth Elliott Cherry while she was serving with the Red Cross during World War I. The cards are sent to her sister David Ellen “Spooks” Tichenor and her nephew Thomas Cherry Tichenor. They discuss sites she is visiting in France and asks that some candy be sent to her as she could “nearly die for sweets.”

Lambert, James Knox Polk, 1864-1960 (Mss 545), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 545. Diaries, speeches, notes and postcards of Simpson County, Kentucky native James Knox Polk Lambert relating to his YMCA work with the American Expeditionary Force at the end of World War I, his tours of Europe thereafter, and his involvement in Freemasonry.

Hines, Clara Ursula (Wright) Nahm, 1904-1983 (Mss 561), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 561. Personal diaries of Clara (Wright) Hines, Bowling Green, Kentucky, kept during her marriage to food critic Duncan Hines and after his death. Includes some correspondence, travel itineraries, and miscellaneous papers.

Between Two Fires: The Origins Of Settler Colonialism In The United States And French Algeria, Ashley Sanders

Library Staff Publications and Research

This dissertation is a comparative study of the establishment of settler colonies in the American Midwest (1778-1795) and French colonial Algeria (1830-1848). It examines how interactions between the Indigenous populations, colonists, colonial administrators, the military, and the métropole shaped their development and advances the theory of settler colonialism. This study centers on the first fifteen to twenty years of conquest/occupation in the American Midwest, focusing specifically on southern Illinois and Indiana, and the province of Constantine, Algeria. Despite differences in geography, relative size of the military presence and Indigenous demographics, the process of establishing settler colonies in both locations followed …